Tag: Leadership

Scottish leadership election leaves gender reform hanging in balance

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The future of transgender rights in Scotland remains in limbo, as SNP politicians warn that a leadership contest must not become dominated by ongoing rows on gender recognition reform.
Meanwhile, Scottish Greens sources suggest that any rowback on reform could lead to the collapse of the party’s power-sharing agreement with the SNP.
A key challenge for whoever replaces Nicola Sturgeon is whether to continue with her plan to challenge the UK government’s decision to block Holyrood’s gender bill through the courts.
Scottish government sources confirmed on Thursday that ministers were still taking legal advice on the prospect of challenging the section 35 order that was announced by the UK government in January, which prevents the bill from going for royal assent. They said a decision was unlikely to be reached until much closer to the 16 April deadline.
On Thursday evening, the SNP’s national executive committee confirmed that the results of its leadership contest would be announced on 27 March, giving the new leader just over three weeks to decide.
A number of SNP politicians, both supportive of and opposed to the bill, raised concerns that the leadership election could become mired in the increasingly toxic debate that has dogged the party for several years, leaving voters unclear whether the party shares their priorities.
One MP said: “People on the doorstep are not talking to me about GRR [gender recognition reform] but about the cost of living crisis.
“The leadership contest shouldn’t become all about the bill. The contest must concentrate on what to do to unify the party and lead us to independence.”

While Sturgeon was an unapologetic defender of the legislation, which would simplify how an individual may legally change their gender, Scottish equalities campaigners have raised concerns that a new leader less committed to reform – as at least one potential contender is known to be – might offer concessions to the UK government rather than formally challenge section 35.
Another SNP MSP who was closely involved in the bill’s progress through Holyrood said that while they expected at least one candidate to emerge who was opposed to the reforms, they would be surprised if the new leader did not continue with the legal challenge.
“This is about much more than gender reform, it’s about whether the Scottish parliament can pass its own legislation. I’d be surprised if a nationalist leader didn’t challenge that, and I’m much more concerned about winning that challenge,” they said.
A Scottish Green party source said the party’s joint leaders, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, would almost certainly resign from their ministerial posts if the new SNP leader either delayed or rewrote the gender recognition bill.
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That would lead to the collapse of the formal cooperation deal brokered by Sturgeon and Harvie in 2021, which led to the SNP sharing power for the first time. “It’s a red line for the party,” he said. “There’s no compromise on this.”
Sturgeon’s successor would almost certainly see that threat as another significant argument in favour of fighting to keep the bill on track. “I think they would walk if a new SNP leader didn’t do everything in their power to get that bill on to the statute book,” the source said.
He also suggested that if the government watered down or dropped the bill, SNP MSPs would revolt in far greater numbers than the nine SNP backbenchers who voted against it.
Senior SNP sources suggest the successful leadership candidate must offer a robust defence of the bill itself but also open up dialogue, while shifting focus to other pressing domestic concerns such as heating and healthcare.
The SNP MP Joanna Cherry, a vocal critic of the changes, tweeted immediately after Sturgeon’s resignation announcement that a leadership contest must “restore the SNP’s tradition of internal party democracy, open respectful debate and intellectual rigour”.
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#Scottish #leadership #election #leaves #gender #reform #hanging #balance
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

February 17, 2023
German chancellor vows ‘leadership’ with call to further arm Ukraine

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MUNICH — Countries able to send battle tanks to Ukraine should “actually do so now,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Friday, trying to rally support for a Europe-wide fleet of tank donations.
Speaking at the opening of the Munich Security Conference, a gathering of global political and security leaders, Scholz said “Germany acknowledges its responsibility for the security of Europe and the NATO alliance area, without ifs and buts.”
This is, he added, “a responsibility that a country of Germany’s size, location and economic strength has to shoulder in times like these.”
Concretely, the chancellor said Germany would “permanently” adhere to the NATO goal of spending 2 percent of its economic output on defense — a target that Berlin is currently set to miss this year and probably also next year, despite a massive €100 billion special fund for military investment.
Germany needs to boost its defense industry and switch to “a permanent production of the most important weapons we are using,” the chancellor added.
Scholz’s remarks came just hours after his defense minister, Boris Pistorius, told reporters in Munich Germany must commit to even higher spending targets to follow through on its security pledges.
“It must be clear to everyone: It will not be possible to fulfill the tasks that lie ahead of us with barely two percent,” Pistorius said.
Western allies are gathering in Munich for a series of high-level talks focused primarily on the war in Ukraine, one year after Russia invaded the Eastern European country.

Scholz said it would be “wise to prepare for a long war” and to send a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he’s making “a miscalculation” if he is counting on Ukraine’s Western allies eventually growing war-weary and pulling back from their military support.
The German chancellor said Ukraine’s allies with German-made, modern Leopard 2 tanks in their stocks should join Berlin in delivering them to Ukraine, adding that his government would use the three-day Munich conference to “campaign intensively for this.”
The German chancellor himself hesitated for months over whether to send Leopard 2 tanks, only changing course last month, when he vowed to build an international alliance that would give Ukraine 80 of the German-built tanks.
But he is struggling to deliver on that commitment. Some allies like Finland are dragging their feet on tank donations, while others like Portugal are not sending as many as Berlin had hoped.
Other countries like Poland or Spain are only sending an older version of the tank, the Leopard 2 A4. Scholz said he hopes “some more will also join” Germany in sending the more modern Leopard 2 A6.
Scholz also said that Germany “will do everything it can to make this decision easier for our partners,” offering to provide logistical support or training Ukrainian soldiers on the tanks. “I see this as an example of the kind of leadership which everyone is entitled to expect from Germany — and I expressly offer it to our friends and partners.”
Just before Scholz spoke, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that “speed is crucial,” underscoring the German leader’s point.

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#German #chancellor #vows #leadership #call #arm #Ukraine
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

February 16, 2023
Klobuchar rising: Leadership path opens for Minnesota Dem

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After rising quietly but steadily since dropping out of the White House hunt nearly three years ago to endorse President Joe Biden, Klobuchar now chairs the Senate Rules Committee and, as chief of the Democratic Steering Committee, sits fourth in the leadership hierarchy. The 62-year-old could keep testing how big her internal clout can get within the Democratic caucus.
Or she could once again test the national stage as a relatively centrist problem-solver in a progressive-heavy field in four years, and vie to succeed Biden as the party’s national standard-bearer. The caucus is already abuzz about who will replace retiring No. 3 Democratic leader Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Klobuchar’s possible ascension to that spot, according to a person briefed on internal conversations.
Ultimately, the succession plan is mostly up to Schumer. And he praised Klobuchar in a statement for this story without tipping his hand: “Amy has an amazing sense of the confluence of policy, press, and politics.”
Approached in the Capitol, Klobuchar declined an interview request for this story. Her spokesperson Jane Meyer said in a statement: “There is always a lot of gossip in the hallways of Congress. I can tell you 100 percent that the senator is focused on one and only one thing: her work.”
Stabenow’s impending departure will offer ambitious, younger Senate Democrats a new opportunity to gain power in the party. Yet if Klobuchar has any designs on running for president again, perhaps in 2028 when the Democratic nomination is expected to be open, she may demur from rising further within Hill leadership.
One Senate Democrat said Klobuchar has “all the credentials and leadership skills” to continue climbing if she wants to.
“My view of it would be, which path are you going to choose? My sense is that the legislative leadership path is not consistent with presidential ambition,” the senator said, addressing the matter on condition of anonymity. “I think she does [look at the White House]. That’s just my gut.”
Klobuchar also has developed a policy profile that stands out in the Democratic Party. She’s championed a stringent tech antitrust bill, though Schumer declined to bring it up under a unified Democratic government the last two years and it faces an uncertain fate under the current divided government.

Her Rules committee also moved a bipartisan proposal to modernize the 19th-century Electoral Count Act last Congress, a bill that ultimately became the only post-Jan. 6 reform to become law. That legislative success relied on her strong relationship with then-Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), at the time her GOP counterpart. And Klobuchar maintains tight relationships with Republicans; on Monday she introduced a campaign finance enforcement bill with Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.).
“Sen. Klobuchar is very respected within the caucus for her strategic sense, and for her grasp of how to communicate with Americans … people value that skill set. Her fundraising capacity is maybe underrated a little bit, but it’s definitely there,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.). “She brings a lot to the caucus in that way.”
Klobuchar’s next sequential move in leadership would be ascending to the post currently held by Stabenow, who runs the Democratic Policy and Communications Center. That post, leading the caucus’ central clearinghouse for messaging, served as the springboard for Schumer to become Democratic leader. Stabenow declined to comment on who succeeds her, and said she’s “got two more years of robustly and effectively leading” the center.
Above Stabenow is Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has been whip since 2005, next faces reelection in 2026 and has faced no challenges in recent years. Durbin declined to address the leadership team’s future in a brief interview, saying only: “Nice try.”
Leadership’s other positions are more fluid in the hierarchy: Stabenow was the No. 4 leader until Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) left Schumer’s team to join the presidential line of succession as president pro tempore, and became No. 3 leader while maintaining the same DPCC chairmanship.
Seniority matters more in Congress for Democrats than it does in the GOP, where term limits create more turnover in leadership and in committee chairmanships. And it’s unclear if any of the current Democrats on Schumer’s expanded leadership team would be an heir apparent to the current majority leader, who at 72 could easily try to stay on for years to come.
That means Klobuchar isn’t the only senator charting a new course since the 2020 primaries nominated Biden and scattered the rest of the party’s rising stars. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) are both running for congressional reelection, with Warren serving as a leading pragmatic progressive and Gillibrand bearing down on her signature issue of military justice.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) now chairs the influential Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and is also weighing whether to run again. And Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), another of Biden’s 2020 primary foes, is the vice chair of Stabenow’s messaging panel.
In an interview, Booker said he feels “blessed” to be on the leadership team but isn’t thinking about whether he or — someone else like Klobuchar — might succeed Stabenow.
“It’s two years until we face that question,” he said.
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#Klobuchar #rising #Leadership #path #opens #Minnesota #Dem
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 7, 2023
Conservative trustees oust president at Florida’s New College amid leadership overhaul

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The newly-installed conservative board of trustees at New College of Florida ousted its current president in favor of former state education commissioner Richard Corcoran Tuesday, launching the initial move in reshaping the campus under the vision of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The decision came at the first board meeting since DeSantis appointed six new trustees with the idea of overhauling the liberal arts college in Sarasota into a more conservative-leaning institution. That track was accelerated Tuesday when the board paved the way for new leadership as students and parents protested the major changes that appear bound for New College.
“Some have said these recent appointments amount to a partisan takeover of the college. This is not correct,” said trustee Matthew Spalding, a constitutional government professor and vice president at Hillsdale College’s D.C. campus who was appointed by DeSantis. “It’s not a takeover — it’s a renewal.”
A leadership switch from President Patricia Okker to Corcoran as interim leader is one of several moves made Tuesday by the board, which also signaled its intent to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campus — all policies pushed by DeSantis. The changes are major developments at the school spurred by the new appointees, including Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who has advised DeSantis on critical race theory, and Eddie Speir, the co-founder of Inspiration Academy, a Christian charter school in Bradenton, Fla.
Tuesday’s meeting was met with apprehension from dozens of students and parents who protested what they called a “hostile takeover” at New College. They urged Okker to stay on as president and push back against the new mandates from the DeSantis administration to model the school as a “Hillsdale of the South” in reference to the private conservative religious “classical“ college in Michigan.
Okker in an emotional address told the board — and the campus — that she couldn’t continue to serve as president amid accusations that the students are being inundated with liberal indoctrination.
“The reality is, and it’s a hard reality and it’s a sad reality, but the vision that we created together is not the vision I have been given as a mandate here,” Okker said.
In remaking the board at New College, the DeSantis administration said the school was “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning” and in need of change following downward enrollment trends. To move on from Okker, trustees agreed to a “generous” exit package that includes at least 12 months of paid professional development leave and benefits. Corcoran is unable to begin serving until March, leaving Okker’s chief of staff Bradley Thiessen in charge until then.

“New leadership is the expectation and I think it makes sense,” Rufo said at the meeting. “I don’t think it’s a condemnation of Dr. Okker, scholarship or skills or character.”
DeSantis’ changes at New College follow other efforts to reshape higher education in Florida. Earlier Tuesday, the GOP governor proposed several changes to Florida’s university system, including pressing the GOP-led Legislature to cut all funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to allow university leaders to launch tenure review of professors. Last year, DeSantis and state Republicans placed GOP allies in top university posts and pushed legislation that could limit how professors teach race.
New College is also now set to review its Office of Outreach & Inclusive Excellence at the request of Rufo as part of the state’s stance against diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools. Rufo originally pushed to abolish the office outright, including four positions, and take other actions tied to diversity and equity, but decided to request further details on the program for a discussion in February.
Tuesday’s meeting was tense at times, with audience members frequently shouting over and at the new trustees as they spoke. Several parents and students addressed the board before they huddled, often criticizing their plans to retool the university and asking them to leave the college alone.
Some faculty said students felt “hopeless” about what could happen at the school, which is a unique college of under 700 undergraduates where students craft personalized education plans and don’t receive letter grades.
“Many students came here to feel safe and access the education that is their right as Floridians,” Diego Villada, Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, told the board. “And the impulse to make this a place where race, intersectionality and DEI are banned indicates to them that you want everyone to be the same – to be like you.”
Trustees, though, made it clear that the New College overhaul is fully underway, a message that came the same day DeSantis pledged to invest millions of dollars into recruiting faculty to the school.
“The campus needs a deep culture change. You sat up here, you called us racists, sexists, bigots, outsiders,” said trustee Mark Bauerlein, professor emeritus of English at Emory University who was appointed by DeSantis. “We are now in a position of authority in the college. And the accusations are telling us that something is wrong here.”
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#Conservative #trustees #oust #president #Floridas #College #leadership #overhaul
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 1, 2023
Conservative trustees oust president at Florida’s New College amid leadership overhaul

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A leadership switch from President Patricia Okker to Corcoran as interim leader is one of several moves made Tuesday by the board, which also signaled its intent to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campus — all policies pushed by DeSantis. The changes are major developments at the school spurred by the new appointees, including Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who has advised DeSantis on critical race theory, and Eddie Speir, the co-founder of Inspiration Academy, a Christian charter school in Bradenton, Fla.
Tuesday’s meeting was met with apprehension from dozens of students and parents who protested what they called a “hostile takeover” at New College. They urged Okker to stay on as president and push back against the new mandates from the DeSantis administration to model the school as a “Hillsdale of the South” in reference to the private conservative religious “classical“ college in Michigan.
Okker in an emotional address told the board — and the campus — that she couldn’t continue to serve as president amid accusations that the students are being inundated with liberal indoctrination.
“The reality is, and it’s a hard reality and it’s a sad reality, but the vision that we created together is not the vision I have been given as a mandate here,” Okker said.
In remaking the board at New College, the DeSantis administration said the school was “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning” and in need of change following downward enrollment trends. To move on from Okker, trustees agreed to a “generous” exit package that includes at least 12 months of paid professional development leave and benefits. Corcoran is unable to begin serving until March, leaving Okker’s chief of staff Bradley Thiessen in charge until then.
“New leadership is the expectation and I think it makes sense,” Rufo said at the meeting. “I don’t think it’s a condemnation of Dr. Okker, scholarship or skills or character.”
DeSantis’ changes at New College follow other efforts to reshape higher education in Florida. Earlier Tuesday, the GOP governor proposed several changes to Florida’s university system, including pressing the GOP-led Legislature to cut all funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to allow university leaders to launch tenure review of professors. Last year, DeSantis and state Republicans placed GOP allies in top university posts and pushed legislation that could limit how professors teach race.
New College is also now set to review its Office of Outreach & Inclusive Excellence at the request of Rufo as part of the state’s stance against diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools. Rufo originally pushed to abolish the office outright, including four positions, and take other actions tied to diversity and equity, but decided to request further details on the program for a discussion in February.

Tuesday’s meeting was tense at times, with audience members frequently shouting over and at the new trustees as they spoke. Several parents and students addressed the board before they huddled, often criticizing their plans to retool the university and asking them to leave the college alone.
Some faculty said students felt “hopeless” about what could happen at the school, which is a unique college of under 700 undergraduates where students craft personalized education plans and don’t receive letter grades.
“Many students came here to feel safe and access the education that is their right as Floridians,” Diego Villada, Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, told the board. “And the impulse to make this a place where race, intersectionality and DEI are banned indicates to them that you want everyone to be the same – to be like you.”
Trustees, though, made it clear that the New College overhaul is fully underway, a message that came the same day DeSantis pledged to invest millions of dollars into recruiting faculty to the school.
“The campus needs a deep culture change. You sat up here, you called us racists, sexists, bigots, outsiders,” said trustee Mark Bauerlein, professor emeritus of English at Emory University who was appointed by DeSantis. “We are now in a position of authority in the college. And the accusations are telling us that something is wrong here.”
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#Conservative #trustees #oust #president #Floridas #College #leadership #overhaul
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 1, 2023
Saudi Arabia appoints 34 women to leadership positions

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Riyadh: In an effort to develop services for women, General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia announced the appointment of 34 women to leadership positions.
The Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques in a statement, on Sunday evening, said that its general president, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, issued a decision to assign 34 leaders in the agencies and departments of the General Presidency for the affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, and the Women’s Agency for the Prophet’s Mosque Affairs.
The General Presidency stated that this decision is among the qualitative shifts that the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque seeks to achieve for qualified Saudi women in the service of women who visit the Two Holy Mosques.
It added, “The decision allows the presidency to invest in women’s it and harness their role as a complement to the successes achieved by women in the Two Holy Mosques.”
Among the names assigned as agents for the General President of the Grand Mosque are Fatima Al-Thubaiti, Nada Al-Maliki, and Abeer Al-Juffair, as well as Amal Thunayan as agent for the General President of the Prophet’s Mosque.
While the assignments of the new women leaders varied between an assistant deputy to the president and directors of various departments within the Two Holy Mosques.
In August 2021, the Presidency of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques announced for the first time the appointment of two women as assistants to the general president.
In recent years, the Kingdom has witnessed extensive transformations, allowing women to drive by royal order in 2017, followed by decisions to enroll women in the main branches of the armed forces with different military ranks.

It also allowed women to be equal with men in the right to obtain a passport and leave the country with the abolition of the requirement of the consent of their guardian, as well as equality in the retirement age equivalent to 58 years.
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#Saudi #Arabia #appoints #women #leadership #positions
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 25, 2023
Kashmir Youth Bags Glendale University’s Leadership Scholarship

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by Fahd Khan
SRINAGAR: Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, 37, from north Kashmir’s Kupwara district has come a long way in his life from being employed as a dishwasher in England to support his living while pursuing a master’s degree and now flowing to California in the United States of America for Glendale University’s Leadership Programme scholarship.
Mushtaq Ahmad Rather
He is currently working as a Business Manager in Riyadh where he reached after spiralling through a maze of hard work.
He did his high schooling at a Government High School in Tarathpora where from he went on to Government Higher Secondary School in Jawahar Nagar.
He did his Honour’s degree from Pune in Maharashtra where he says that Peoples Conference President and politician Sajad Lone guided him.
After graduating from Pune, Mushtaq moved to Mumbai to find employment to raise money to travel to England to enrol in the University of Chester’s Master of Business Administration programme.
However, the journey in England was not as easy as one may think, Mushtaq had to do some odd jobs to support his stay.
“Soon I joined Chester University where we were given a timetable for the whole year. We only had to attend the university for three days, and in the remaining days we used to do part-time jobs to manage our living expenses as living in England is very expensive.”

“I did many jobs starting from dishwashing which was very hard and I used to cry sometimes. Later on, I took up a job of a waiter, a marketing executive and a salesman. All the jobs helped me to understand more about business management,” Mushtaq said.
After completing his Master’s degree in England, he moved to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. He is currently working as an operational head of Daralheiam Investment Company owned by former Hollywood rapper of 2pac Rap group turned businessman Mutah Beale.
But Mushtaq’s’ journey of doing something more in life didn’t stop at Riyadh, he continued applying for new programmes in various universities across the globe.
“I always used to contact people from many universities on the internet and I had also applied online to many universities. I applied to the Glendale University of California and luckily got selected after many rounds of interviews where I portrayed my managerial experience. I got selected from among 485 students who had participated from across the globe,” Mushtaq said.
Staying in Kashmir and opening a good business here was what Mushtaq had always had in mind but life had other plans in store. While Mushtaq was in England, he with his brother’s help tried his hands at many business ventures which couldn’t flourish for varied reasons.
“I started a wholesale business of garments with the help of my brother but we suffered a massive loss. I tried to develop a restaurant business in Kashmir where employees used to handle it but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it had to be shut down. A businessman in Kashmir has to face several problems”.
Despite all his business ventures failing, Mushtaq didn’t lose hope and is planning to export Kashmiri food products to Saudi Arabia.
Mushtaq is hopeful that he will get support from the government of India in establishing his export business which will provide jobs to the unemployed people in the Valley.

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#Kashmir #Youth #Bags #Glendale #Universitys #Leadership #Scholarship
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

January 23, 2023